The Sugar Bar

Christmas kind of came and went real quick this year. The big ol’ traditional feast cook-up this time round was a little more stressful. For what reason I was so frazzled I know not, but in my book, the means justifies the end. And if the end is the pudding, then whatever comes before that is allowed to go by in a blur. I’d like to think I save my best card for last and I play that card best in sweet treats rather than the savoury. Just for the record, I can whip up a mean Christmas roast and yorkshire puddings. I just take more joy in beating up eggs, butter and flour.

Cherries mean big Christmas business for me. Of course, there’s the whole medley of dried fruit soaked in rum or brandy overnight and made into the usual fruit cake shebang schmang but sometimes that all gets a bit boring. Christmas pudding is a tad bit too stodgy for my liking and my all-time favourite bread and butter pudding probably would not have gone down well either with a weight-conscious family. The current monsoon season we’re experiencing has also resulted in extreme levels of humidity. The air is so thick its almost chewable! We’re pretty much live bread and butter puddings ourselves: thick, pneumatic, sticky piles of flesh which don’t sit too well in a steamy bubble of heat. Ew (in relation to ourselves and our general appearance). Delicious (this time, I refer to bread and butter pudding), but really just too hot to handle in this heat.

Something (deceivingly) light, something flavoursome and still a sweet round-off worth your calories was what I wanted. That of course is when Nigella comes in handy (not so much her love for big knobs, oh I meant slabs, of butter). Flipping through a cookbook of hers I received from girlfriends on my 21st, the page which had a recipe sporting dark natural-coloured juicy fat sweet cherries got me at first sight. Hello, goosebumps. And so my Christmas sweet was sorted. Just like that. You’d say this was more of an afternoon teacake and yes it is, but that works since the leftovers get gobbled up for breakfast and lunch on Boxing Day.

I have swapped a few ingredients (natural-coloured glacé cherries and almond essence – they’re not well-liked by the family) and added a granola crust just to pretty up the surface of the cake. Plus, I’ve always loved that gorgeous golden brown hue, the texture and rustic feel granola can give to a loaf cake. Can’t resist a bit of granola any day! And it seems neither can the hungry fools around the Christmas dinner table.

Hope everyone had a joyous holiday season. We’re stuffed Tellytubbies at the moment with barely enough time to recover before the Lunar New Year hits us right smack between the eyes. Oh geez. Time to brace ourselves.

Cherry Almond Loaf Cake
Recipe adapted from Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess
Ingredients

200g dark pitted cherries
250g self-raising flour, sifted
225g unsalted butter, softened
175g caster sugar
3 large free-range eggs
2 drops of pure vanilla extract
100g ground almonds
6 tbs milk
about 1/4 cup mixed granola, for crust (optional)

Preheat oven to 170d Celsius. Grease and flour a long loaf tin.

Drain the juice of the pitted cherries in a sieve, halve them and pat dry a little with a kitchen paper towl. Toss them in some flour and shake well to get rid of the excess.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition. Add the vanilla, beat.

Gently fold in the flour and ground almonds. Fold in the cherries and milk. You will get a thick and heavy batter. Spoon this into the prepared loaf tin and using a rubber spatula, even out the surface. Sprinkle the granola (use your favourite brand of granola, mine’s Dorsets Cereals, or homemade granola) over the surface and gently pat down into an even layer to secure the bits of oats, nuts, etc. to bake in the cake.

Bake loaf for 45mins-1 hr or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Mine took 1hr 5mins to cook perfectly.

When it is cooked, remove from the oven and let cook in its tin on a wire rack until completely cooled.

It’s time – time for making new year’s resolutions. I haven’t made any lists or any resolutions (officially) for a while now. If I had, they were just kinda a rough ideas formed -sorta- in my head, or a mish-mash of old and new resolutions, easily forgotten, easily dismembered into something else completely. Not much substance, not much thought given to it, not much of an effort really.

Now someone tell me that’s so lazy?

2009 was one of the best years. The middle of it marked the end of my (and a fairly successful one at that) undergrad life, witnessed the most amazing graduation and grad ball, a little romance, crazy Spain holiday, sophisticated Parisian trip, lots of sun and the best tan I’ve ever in my entire 22 years achieved, a little heartache, lots of eating and birthday fun, etc. So much happened, and oh blimey! Lady Gaga was born; so much was learnt I can barely attempt to describe what I got out of the year, the crazy antics that occurred, the jokes that were told, the food that was cooked.

Everyone’s a little more mature, or more mad, more enthusiastic, a little more on their way to achieving their goals. Although it’s sad to turn around and look at your past selves, the ghosts of you, I can safely say I regret none of the things that I’ve experienced or done. The years and the selves that make you YOU are all bits of you. 2010 may mean I shall look back to see a younger Diva fussing and fiddling about to find her way; and sometimes the past self is just a little bit unrecognizable or embarrassing to acknowledge. Nonetheless, I am accepting all the ghosts of me and taking them with me in the back of my mind and heart to welcome 2010.

And with that, here are just some things I noted down as reminder to myself ~ 9 resolutions. A bit much? Nah. They ain’t too tedious so they’re all a bit of fun anyway. What about you, any resolutions for the coming new year? I’m sure you’ve got some. Now don’t be lazy and whip out your list!

2010 Resolutions
1. Learn to start brushing my hair. Beach frizz, bedhead, volumatic poofs are great but surely it wouldn’t hurt me to have a little sleekness next year?

2. Make more of an effort -the motto for all things: with keeping in touch with old friends, with cooking, with work, with my writing, etc.

3. As much as the big city sometimes upsets me, attempt to get to know London a lot better. I’ll start by eating through this city of smoke (and also shopping through its great vintage finds). And oh yea, don’t forget to take my camera out with me even if it’s for a little stroll. It’s the new fashion statement, hung around your neck or held between two icy cold bare hands.

4. Look after my health and fight off dehydration. Water’s your best friend and your only friend sometimes.

5. Promote optimism – I’m not mad and even if I am, it’s a good mad – it’s creativity. She says.

6. This is totally cringe-worthy and virtually everyone I know, when asked to write a list of new year’s resolutions, bangs this one out. Time management. You just gotta say it. Every year I’m fighting against time as I take on more things to do, as I refine my goals and dreams, this bugger’s gonna be stuck to me and to my list for years to come.

7. Visit more food markets; actually, no. VISIT FOOD MARKETS. I haven’t done any of that ever since I moved to London. Too busy for fresh food shopping, too tired to cook anything fresh. It’s a horrid lifestyle. Totally gotta change that.

8. Shop smart for train tickets. Book in advance (way in advance if I can) or use megatrain to get regular Virgin train tickets for embarrassingly cheap tickets.

9. Get more involved in recyclable fashion and chuck less stuff out. I’m getting used to scoring at vintage shops, Oxfam and ripping and re-tying old things for a new look. It’s fun and stops my brain going belly-up from too much academia.

•••

Serious stuff done, let me share some food eye candy with you.

Napolean Tea & Caramel macaron, Moroccan Mint Tea macaron; Sakura Sakura! Tea, Jade Blossom Tea at TWG Salon, ION @ Singapore

The Christmas holiday was well spent and our Christmas roast (prepared, executed and served by moi with some help from the sisters; grocery shopping was team effort with Mum; turkey carving was left to Daddee) a true 2009 success, topping all our other roasts from previous years. I think when Mum’s eyes lit up from the moistness of the turkey, I achieved my first shining Mama-chelin star. So chuffed.

Unfortunately, not many photographs were taken this time round. My camera battery was low and wallybrain me had decided to leave it in my flat – who does that?! But it was glorious and there couldn’t have been a better way to spend Christmas family time. At TWG Tea Salon, we didn’t take much either as we were literally quivering with fear as we’d heard rumours about a no-photography policy. When we did gather our courage to whip out the cameras, no one stopped us. The waiting staff were pretty helpful, offering to take photos of us too which was great! Shame we didn’t get to document our tiers of cakes, patisseries, macarons and finger sandwiches. They were as beautiful as they tasted.

I admit that I was a bit of a hermit, staying in and working furiously like Silas Marner at my essays. I’ve yet to complete the last one which has been a pain in the ass for a real long time but I’m pressing on. Nonetheless, having work to do over the holiday (a real bummer) has taken up loads of my time to meet up with old friends for coffee/catch-ups. A shame I know but I did manage to squeeze a little tea session with the best girl at TWG Tea Salon, movie with the sisters and a lovely lunch with the family.

Mitsu Bay Scallops, Lotus, Chicken, Grated Radish, Shiso Leaves and an Ume Sauce at Ootoya

The weather’s been pretty mild here. I was a little worried about getting totally roasted to death but somehow, the weather’s been so good – cool, not as humid as expected, with a little sun and wind. Not that the weather makes any difference on my sugar/sweet/desserts cravings! And there’s evidence that these cravings were satisfied…

Going out without my camera felt a little odd but knowing that my sister had her Canon D-SLR with her was thoroughly exhilarating. For the first time, I properly held on in my hands and fiddled about with the manual settings and focus. I ain’t good at it (I hope I can say ‘yet’). But it felt amazing. There was like a charge in the atmosphere when I picked it up – not that my own little Powershot G10 isn’t loved but having my eye up to the camera, as though it was some mad extension of my dessert-hungry face, was pretty cool.

Maybe now I’m one of those cool kids with the d-slr and who traipse about knowing they’re all cool and shit with their cameras? Damn ‘em. I’m envious. Oh well, Powershot G10, you’re stuck with me for a long while now. And you’ve never let me down so I’m not unhappy about that. It was just wicked to feel a d-slr in my hands. Kinda like being taken up in a helicopter over a big city by some fancy rich guy ~ something I dream about but don’t really need at the end of the day.

Beautiful Matcha Mousse, Shirotama, Adzuki and Vanilla Ice Cream

I was whipped. The mousse was so matcha-ey with enough bitterness to send me flying. This is one dessert I’ll come back for.

Matcha Parfait – what a classic! – concoction of brown sugar syrup, custard, sponge cake, whipped cream, adzuki, matcha ice cream, what else? mmmm…all good.

The parfait was delicious! I loved the brown sugar syrup at the bottom of the glass. Not a tall glass, so not much to consume but just enough to make you wish you wanted more although you’re totally full up.

My time at home included loads more desserts like kakigori, homemade carrot cake, cookies, biscuits, chocolates, etc. It was a sweet Christmas. And a lovely way to end 2009.

Now, hello 2010. I’m confident that there’s more good sweet things to come. And the next time you hear from me, I’ll be back in London with twice the cravings and hopefully zero jet lag.

Kid Diva’s back in the nest. And joy to the reunion with her oven, finally. Living without one was not only upsetting me, it was making me almost allergic to the thought of surviving without one. The things I could normally roast and bake had been reduced so drastically it wasn’t a surprise that I found myself relying more on cereal and rabbit food than ever!

The past month has been very hectic too, what with balancing a Masters and part-time retail work at American Apparel, there really wasn’t much time left to do any sort of fancy cooking. It was simple, easy-peasy, bang bang type of cooking. And sometimes, there wasn’t even any cooking involved except for re-heating or microwave blasting the damn thing. I can’t tell you more how glad I am to be home for Christmas, to smell dinner cooking at half 7, to be able to flip through my recipe books very (and I stress that word ‘very’) leisurely whilst planning some sweet treat to bake the next day. I admit I am procrastinating and not giving my essays the appropriate amount of attention and care as I do my cookbooks, but it’s all worth it after being forced into oven abstinence the past few months.

I may not be able to fit as many recipes as I intend to attempt into the remaining few days I’m home for Christmas, and I’m constantly reminding myself that the reason for this is the heffer of an essay I have to tackle next. Yes, I’ve just about finished the 1st one I kept bitching about on Twitter and now have to haul ass on the next. Wish I could laze away another day doing nothing (except baking) but that’s really not likely at all. And it’s a real shame since returning to London means living without an oven for another 9 months – that’s madness. Pure torture. I don’t know how I’m going to cope. Might have to eat myself to death as a way to console my aching heart.

I find that I have recently crashed into a state of poverty which is a really awful time of the year to realize your purse has become as dry and unfertile as the Sahara desert. Fortunately, all my Christmas presents have been sorted out and I managed to (with help from the Mama) purchase some Christmassy ingredients for a bit of baking this week. So not very much left to worry about I suppose in terms of spending (she says). But before I start waxing lyrical about this babe of a recipe I found scribbled in a very old recipe book of mine, let me share with you this bit of shopping I thoroughly enjoyed today – RIBBON SHOPPING. Might have overshot my tiny miserly budget I set out for ribbons today. I’m still waiting for guilt to set in but it seems it’s gonna take a few more years for it to hit me.

Pretty, chic, Laura Ashley-type ribbons in lovely pastels (my favourite is duck egg and mint green) are quite hard to find. I often purchase mine online from that Cakes Cookies & Craft Shop I talk about quite a lot. Although they’ve got quite a range of plain ribbons advertised on their retail shop, it’s pretty much a race against other eager customers as the colours I want are always sold out. Purchasing by the metre pisses me off too as I hate having to estimate how much I’m going to use or how large my ribbons tied will look like, etc. For Pete’s sake I’m just buying ribbons not attempting to plan a conspiracy act against the Senate or something like that. Just give me my ribbons! Moreover, it’s even more difficult to find ribbons in pretty but not garish, childish patterns. After reading about a fantastic cheap ribbon find in Singapore via Evan’s blog Bossacafez, I knew I’d finally struck gold. When Evan posted a post Really Cheap Ribbons II, I snapped, threw caution to the wind and nicely asked Mum for a lift to Arab Street to check out this ribbon treasure chest.

I wasn’t disappointed. Polka dots? Oui. I love ‘em. Duck egg shades? Awesome, bung it in my basket. Mint green and contrasting baby pink dots? Holy smokes, isn’t that simply adorable? Yep. Gotta have it. Ladybugs? Geeez, you’re killing me, mate. Chocolate brown ribbons, mocha coloured ones, milky latte types, fuschia strips with white lace edges, cut-out-heart ones for the soppy lovesick ones, baby pink/blues with milk bottle patterns for baby showers, etc. They’ve got it all! After deliberating for quite some time, I managed to come round to 5 rolls, paid and left grinning from ear to ear.

Happy days.

Don’t you like how sometimes you purchase things you know you don’t need at the moment, but like an investment, you’re buying for the future? Some people think that’s foolish and so self-indulgent. I, on the other hand, would like to argue (in defense of us eager shoppers) and say we’re stocking up for the winter. In times of need, when you just can’t bloody find any ribbon about the house, or need an emergency gift for a friend, may be in desperate need to put your hair up on a hot day when all hair ties have decided to go missing or rip at the very last second which counts the most, you’ve got ribbon.

How comforting does that phrase : ‘You’ve got ribbon’ sound? Surely you agree!

And on to moi Christmas cookies. I know cranberry, white chocolate and walnut combo can be pretty normal, unexciting and predictable at this time of the year but surely a little stereotyping, a little cliché at Christmas time is totally forgivable? I love this combination of flavours (even if I dislike white chocolate. It’s weird but with raspberries or cranberries, I’d eat the white crap) and cranberry white chocolate was a duo I fell in love with in high school. Funnily enough, I liked it so much it was what inspired me to start baking and make truckloads of cranberry white chocolate cookies to last me a lifetime. Besides I thought it was pretty apt to return to my beloved oven with a favourite recipe of mine – and at that, one which I’d left to drown in the back of a very old recipe book forgotten behind newer, fancier celebrity chef cookbooks.

These cookies may not look great. They’re not as chunky, as fat, as voluptuous as I’d like them to be but I’m sure I’m to blame for that. Nevertheless, I think they taste great. A little on the sweet side so might have to reduce the amount of white chocolate buttons used in this but the flavours meshed together brilliantly and the cookies turned out nice and chewy in the middle and perfectly crunchy on the outer edges. I used cheap vanilla essence and that wasn’t as delightful as it would’ve been with a better quality vanilla extract but not complaining since they still quite scrumptious, evidence thanks to my elder sister A.

Mum: You’re baking tonight? Right now?
Me: Nah. Gonna head upstairs and do some work first (in my head, really I’m going to be blogging and twittering). I’ll bake a little later tonight. I’ll make another loaf cake tomorrow (after our Christmas eve roast dinner) for the family gathering on Christmas day.
A, my elder sister: You’re certainly attacking the oven with a vengeance, huh.
Me: Yea.
A: These cookies are delicious. Your best I think.
Me: They’re a little too sweet, no?
C, my younger sister: Yea! They’re so sweet.
A: Where? If you tell me where it’s sweet, maybe. But I don’t think they are. They’re good.

Feel really good about that vote of confidence. It’s always so rewarding to see the people you love enjoy the things you make. Okie dokie, I must be off to get working on these essays even more before I tackle my carrot cake for tomorrow’s dessert. Went to bed at 4am this morning trying to tie up all my arguments and have a feeling that it will be done again tonight so that I can both enjoy my holiday and meet my uni deadline.

To all those furiously baking and working away like Silas Marner in their kitchen dens, I salute you all. Happy Christmas! I can’t wait to catch up on all that Christmas food blogging soon.

Cranberry, White Chocolate & Walnut Cookies
Ingredients

1 1/4 cup plain flour
113g unsalted butter, cold & cut into pieces
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 150dC.

Beat sugars and butter together til light and creamy. Mix in egg, vanilla and baking soda. Sift in flour, add salt and mix into batter. Fold in chocolate chips, cranberries and walnuts.

Drop rounded tablespoonful of batter onto parchment-lined cookie trays and bake 2″ apart. Careful as these cookies will spread a bit and some of mine stuck together. If it does, use a small butter knife or spatula to separate and reshape cookies.

Bake 18-20 mins or until pale golden brown. Leave to cool about 2-3mins on the tray before transferring to cool completely on a wire rack. These cookies will firm and crunch up as they cool.